Guns in Albany

ALBANY — More illegal guns were recovered in the city of Albany last year than Schenectady and Troy combined — outnumbering the weapons found in Yonkers and showing a higher concentration than New York City, statistics show.

Are there more guns in Albany, or are police better at finding them? Read the story and share your comments.

There really is a problem here for sure. Policy cannot be set
to infringe upon lawful owners for sports purposes who
almost never seems to be the ones who are involved with the
street crimes. The street crime crowd is a whole other different
element. They are the ones obtaining illegal guns then using
them when they do, not for lawful sport but for crimes of
“disrespect” whatever THAT is !! These are isolated pretty much
down to the minority occupied neighborhoods. Those minorities
really do have to start getting rid of their guns and also getting
rid of their pit bull dogs too. All this behavior comes from
the very same place. Why are 15 year olds pointing guns at
each other? They are getting this from the adults. These minority
neighborhoods don’t seem to comprehend that you CAN’T do any
old thing in front of kids. Ya just CAN’T. So then the question
becomes: where in these neighborhoods does it all end?

mjc, Three topics in a row on guns and gangs is overkill, no pun intended. No one’s suggesting the problem has gone away, but there are a lot of issues people can talk about. I only ask for some variety. Lighten up.

Marlon, if that post was directed to me, I’m not prioritizing levels of importance on different topics. I’m only asking for variety. Like I told mjc, LIGHTEN UP!! Yes, this topic is important, but we don’t all want to talk about this all the time. Posting a new topic won’t make this and the other two go away. You’re still free to comment all you want.

Stop acting like this is the only topic that we should be discussing, like there are no other issues in the world and community. And stop trying to turn my harmless suggestion in #1 into an issue it should never have become.

reep not trying to be confrontational or arguementative this is simply about priorties and the lack of same as it pertains to such issues! yes there are many issues that can be debated, issues like education, urban blight, etc etc but I think that nearly every issue on the table should take a back seat to the issue of children dying and being killed by children dont you? And if the city of Albany and the media devoted as much attention and concern to this issue as is being devtoed to it in the blogosphere perhaps we could solve the problem. So dont misinterpret my reply as a attack it wasnt, it simply was a statement of fact!

Doesn’t look like Sue is a racist as much as a realist. Let’s face it, the scummy neighborhoods are being overrun by drug dealing gangstas hell bent on killing each other for lucrative turf for their ill-gotten gains. I say instead of getting rid of the guns, Mayor Jennings should be passing legislation mandating all residents and any person who enters the city limits carry a handgun. ARM EVERYONE and the lowlifes will crawl back under the rocks from where they came. Quit picking on Sue.

Nope, Sue sounds like a racist to me. just like on every other blog she posts her hate. In response to number nine, I think its stupidity, if she were brave she would post her whole address… Maybe she isn’t that stupid.

I don’t think Sue is racist angry. I think Sue is angry. Like you angry. Many liberal white people thought the ’60s Civil Rights Movement and the Voters’ Rights Act was the beginning of the end. Not only would segregation be abolished; but Blacks would be given social / economic opportunities (social mobility). Poverty would be diminished. Not eliminated of course. There are many, many White people living in poverty too. Many Blacks have advanced socially and economically. Many more Blacks (so it seems) continue to live in poverty. Why? Their attitude and culture is not mainstream America: disrespect for education, women; drugs; crime; single parent families; no interest in social mobility; gangs; etc. There are Whites who are similiar. My bro lives at the City Mission. He squandered many opportunities. I disrespect him. My point is this: I don’t think Sue is a racist. Like me, she is disappointed. The opportunity is there. Take it. And they don’t. Folks fought for you in the ’50s and ’60s. They don’t care.

Check out the Albany city crime map: SouthEnd, Arbor Hill and West Hill. I believe the gangs stay within their hoods. I believe bad teens who are unafiliated to gangs roam neighborhoods outside their hoods. Why? Because they are lookin’ for victim who have $$$$.

P.S.: I believe good people in the SouthEnd, Arbor Hill and West Hill need to cooperate with the police if they want to rid their hood of the bad people. Police need to reach out if they are sincere. Mayor Jerry needs to sincerely get involved. Chief Tuffey too.

I dont see Sues comment as racist, she could be mentioning the local redical islamic shoulder rocketing minority population. I think we are culturing a crop of low hanging gangsta fruit, feeding them MTV’esque pop-em wit my nine messages and CNN’s it’s a race race. Guns are not the problem, It’s the lack of parenting, parental pride and responsibility. Instead of treating the kids as adults, we need to treat the adults like kids. “Incarcerate or leave the state” should be a slogan. The weeds are multiplying and the seeds struggle or failure to take root in between.

Lets water down or discourage the family unit structure and make it easy for “enable” single mothers to get local, state and daddy-aid to help live comfortably unemployed while having more kids without parents “Kwips”. Wait, we are already doing great at that.

Short term, can we cut down on State handout entitlement programs and encourage these people to move out of the state, perhaps to better climates? Commercials say “foodstamps are for everyday people” can I get some of those? Sue, Thank you for expressing your frustration, people like you need ghe Guardian Angels up here, wait, Jennings says we dont need them here.

I think Sue has hit on a few real points,ofcourse when you do that it seems to irk a few people;when you start putting fear into people so they won’t speak their mind that too, in my humble opinion is racism.

ex albainian and lord flaunt, simply put racism is ignorance plain and simple and lord as a resident of the scummy neighboorhoods you speak of! dont beleive everything U see or read! this is a neighboorhood like any other with people living their lives, with kids playing and laughing and growing. its A neighboorhood like any other except with a problem, a problem that has went unaddressed, and that is because of ignorance expressed like yours and and the presumption and assumption of ignorance like yours within the regional community! Because that is what has created the problem this type of thinking! it leads to disassociation and creates a disconnect betwwen people, cultures, and communities! I am not “scum” and the inner city community is not scummy! It is a part of Albany like any other with problems! And they need to be addresed and not by racism or racist viewpoints!

What is even more dangerous than a racist in Albany, is the democratic machine that is now in full force all the way up to the Governor’s office. We have a governor that we did not vote for, a comptroller that we didn’t vote for; a DA whose professional aspirations have had an adverse impact on this community. On the other side, the only time you hear from the Republican leaders is when they want a donation. We have a mayor in the City of Albany who does not employee republicans and who employes numerous non-resident employees, who started when they were not actually residing in Albany. Mayor, stop looking at the buildings. bricks, and blueprints, and start looking at the people — all of the people who reside in the City of Albany and listening to them.

I have read the comments of the respondents and can’t help thinking that there all sorts of reasons why our neighborhoods have disintegrated into war zones.I can tell you this, I grew up in the south end of Albany in the 60’s and our neighborhoods were a mix of white, black, Catholic, protestant Jewish, Italian,Irish,Polish, you name it. My parents were poor and we had just enough. But we had something that’s missing today. A sense of family ,pride, responsibility, self respect and dignity.All the so-called economic and social issues aside, I traveled thru my old neighborhood and can’t believe the decay. People decide on how they live.

#19 – FYI – I was born, brought up & lived in lower Albany for 45 yrs – oops, maybe I do know of what I speak. I totally agree with Paul MacFarland – it all goes back to pride, self worth, responsibility etc. It is true – people make choices about how they live. Don’t bother giving me thae old lines about the downtodden poor either. One does not have to have much $ to instill a sense of decency in thier children. However, they must be willing to pay attention to them – last time I checked, that was free…..

Its amazing if you look at the buildings off henry Johnson blvd.Touhey built back around 1989-1990 and look how thrashed they are now.Too many people coming up from NYC bringing drugs ,guns attitudes and no tiesor respect to the community.

LOL!Paul Ud think from the media coverage that Albany was a war zone(well maybe on Pearl st on the weekends you could make that assumptionbut its not! simply put Albany is a city of neglect from its failing educational system to crime in the streets to the telling urban blight! its the neglect of Albany as a whole in favor of resturanteurs and developers that increases the vagrants on our streets and our rehab population! its neglect plain and simple and until we address the neglect the problems will remain A issue and they will grow! How is it that millions of dollars can be found and fought for for a convention center, yet we cannot afford or fund public education, how is it that we can subsidized and support commerical development for a few resturanteurs on Pearl street but we cant build one community center? How is it that the mayor can make every phot op and event but he cannot address or engage a community in crisis over violence and neglect? Its the neglect people!!!!

yes i did tell the cops and they said “they are a bunch of animals”. i am pretty sure most of the police officers went into there jobs with good intentions but these areas are completely hopeless.
at the cololnial inn on central they sell crack on the street like its newspapers. 12 year old little punks with no parents rome the streets all night up to no good but still no curfew? there should be a military presence 24/7 in these hoods.WORD!!!!!!!

yooo matt is right!! i live on washington in albany and i was getting crunked with all my college buddies at our block party and one of my friends ends up on clinton at 1 in the morning. What do you think happend?????????????? i think the Guard needs to move into town!!! WORDDD